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106.5 GOING ACTIVE

W

wncc

Today, I noticed them playing Guns 'N Roses during my lunch hour. Then when I got in the car this afternoon on the way home, Van Halen was playing. I had to check my presets to make sure I wasn't on the Fox. Looking at the playlist, it seems they are playing about 1 active song an hour.

http://www.yes.com/#WEND?log
 
Hey WNCC,

I beg to differ & agree to disagree w/your post.

You might want to be careful posting a subject as important as a format flip.

WEND might program a classic cut such as G&R or VH once in awhile (during lunch, etc.,) but, those are not Active Rock songs.

The station is not Active Rock by any means, even though they play more than one Active Rocker an hour.

They are classified as an Alternative Rock station, by Radio-Info.com, Arbitron, R&R, etc.

You can hear their alternative songs on college radio!

Like I've said before, their ratings are what they are because they play what they play.

There is not enough Mass Appeal to support an Alternative Rocker.

As I've also said before, Charlotte is the largest city between DC & Atlanta, & it deserves it's own Active Rocker, such as 93.3The Planet & 100.3The Buzz..

They are some of the most indescribable stations in the nation.

Charlotte has to get it's Active Rock fix from them.

Greenville/Spartanburg & Greensboro have the Charlotte market beat!
 
106.5 hasn't been "alternative" in years. It's long been known as one of the least "alt" stations that's in the format.
 
Jimmy,

Arbitron & Radio & Records list the station as Alternative.

Where do you base your proof?

They play Alternative rock, do or don't you agree?

Check out their playlist on 1065.com

If, in your opinion, it hasn't been Alternative in years, how long has this been going on, & what format is it?
 
wncc said:
Today, I noticed them playing Guns 'N Roses during my lunch hour. Then when I got in the car this afternoon on the way home, Van Halen was playing. I had to check my presets to make sure I wasn't on the Fox. Looking at the playlist, it seems they are playing about 1 active song an hour.

http://www.yes.com/#WEND?log
Click to expand...

First, If you noticed, I posted this with a question icon, not a statement. I've seen them listed as Modern Rock rather than active and the liners they are using now is Today's New Rock and 90's Alternative. Therefore, it seems that they are tweaking the format to head in that direction subtly. It wouldn't be a major format flip, just a tweak.
 
Where have you seen them listed as Modern Rock?

They've been calling themselves New Rock for years - doesn't mean it's Active.
 
R&R has been closed for over a year, so not sure why you guys keep sourcing them as if they were a current reference. WEND is classified as Alternative by both Mediabase and BDS, the two services that monitor radio playlists. "New Rock" is synonymous with Alternative.

A single Van Halen spin and a few G'n'R spins is not enough to call it a format flip or adjustment. The End has leaned hard for a while, but definitely is still within the bounds of the Alternative lane based on the heavy amounts of Alternative-based recurrents and gold they're playing. Alt stations have been dipping into the Active/Mainstream Rock pool of music for many years, especially for mass-appeal songs like "Welcome to the Jungle." That track was played several times over the past week by such Alternative stations as 91X in San Diego, KROQ and 98-7FM in Los Angeles and Live 105 in San Francisco, all of whom played it more than The End did. KROQ and other Alt stations routinely play Metallica tracks like "Enter Sandman," but I don't see anyone screaming about how KROQ is becoming an Active Rock station.
 
Okay it was really more of a question. Thanks RockTheGlobe, I think your answer fits perfectly. Yes they have always played a few Metallica and some stuff sprinkled in here and there, but one an hour is heavy for them.
 
R & R still delivers monitored charts by subscription, using the BDS data tailored with their panel. Record folks still use that and Mediabase to count up their adds. How R & R lists you is not definitive. It has, and is, a political process. Because record company promotion money still is tied to reporting status, the R & R suck job continues.

WEND has a definite Active lean to it. Their ratings are what they are because they are unfocused and the playlist is a straddle the fence mess.
 
We can say that WEND's playlist is unfocused, but I'll disagree and say that it's too focused...on playing the same songs too many times. Yesterday alone I heard some band named "Caged the Elephant" and their song "In One Ear" four times in my five trips in the car to/from sales stops. That's just between 8am and 4pm. It seems that they have their handful of songs that get played once an hour (that one, 30 Seconds to Mars, Linkin Park) and throw in whatever they can scrounge up to pass the time until they can play their "bread and butter" songs.
 
TheDuke said:
We can say that WEND's playlist is unfocused, but I'll disagree and say that it's too focused...on playing the same songs too many times. Yesterday alone I heard some band named "Caged the Elephant" and their song "In One Ear" four times in my five trips in the car to/from sales stops. That's just between 8am and 4pm. It seems that they have their handful of songs that get played once an hour (that one, 30 Seconds to Mars, Linkin Park) and throw in whatever they can scrounge up to pass the time until they can play their "bread and butter" songs.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. But that seems to be the cases with all formats, look at the last time an AC station played Margaritaville or a classic rock station played Stairway to Heaven. IMO, there just isn't enough alternative anymore, and 106.5 should go active.

Also, while we're on the topic of 106.5, Thank you Clear Channel for dropping the god awful Bob and Tom show.
I've listened to WEND more in the past 4 months than I have in the past 10 years. Yes, I know I've posted that comment before.
 
Yep, looking at the yes.com playlist, I see an Ozzy and a Motley crue sneaking in once an hour. Seems to be the norm across the nation though. WRXP in new York calls themselves AAA but plays AC/DC, G n'R, etc. KROQ and 98.7 in LA seem to be doing the same thing. Though probably a few years down the road, perhaps we should anticipate a split in formats of 'new' alternative vs 80's/90's rock, just as classic and active rock sort of split in the 90's? Let's face it, Alice in Chains, Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers are all hitting 20 years since making it big. Not exactly cutting edge anymore...
 
Even though 93.3The Planet in the Greenville/Spartanburg mkt. is my favorite & 100.3The Buzzard in the Greensboro mkt. is my 2nd favorite (IMHO, both better mkts. than Charlotte), WNCC also agrees that 106.5 should go Active.

It would give 99.7The Fox a run for it's $, & as much as I love The Planet & The Buzzard, if done right, 106.5 could take a bite out of those stations penetrating the Charlotte mkt. for listeners' Active Rock fix.

104.7, 106.5 & 107.9 seem like such a waste.

Charlotte Needs Real Rock - Active Rock!
 
Repetition isn't the same as focus. There is no common thread between the types of music that they are playing. If you tune in for any given quarter hour, you have no idea what type of station you are listening to or what to expect. Hence, the very premise of this thread: is it Active or is it Alternative. The answer is, it is an unfocused mess of both. You cannot straddle the fence.
 
Clear Channel owns 106.5 The End and 100.3 The Buzz. The 106.5 signal covers part of the Triad as well. Wouldn't a Active Rock format on 106.5 hurt its sister, 100.3?
 
Johnny Caudle said:
Clear Channel owns 106.5 The End and 100.3 The Buzz. The 106.5 signal covers part of the Triad as well. Wouldn't a Active Rock format on 106.5 hurt its sister, 100.3?
Click to expand...

Not only would it hurt 100.3, more importantly it would hurt 99.7. I don't think Clear Channel runs on the Cain and Abel principle. They've made some boneheaded moves over the years for sure, but this is one area I don't see them robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Enough cliches for a day.
 
We've been saying this for years -

Say CC didn't own 99.7, 100.3 & 106.5, & all of these other Radio conglomerates - Cox, CBS, Greater Media, Entercom & others - didn't have multiple stations in the same mkts.

Even though it's approved by the FCC.

They're protecting their sister stations - afraid of hurting the ratings of their sister stations by programming demographically the type of music that people enjoy.

They know exactly what they're doing.

It's all about $.

Then, there could be genuine, sincere competition - Radio Wars!

&, Radio, the way it should be, serving the community.

&, the listening audience wouldn't be dumbed down & subjected to what they have to listen to.

They're not as dumb as these Radio conglomerates think - no wonder they're turning to IPODs', etc.

So, let the Charlotte mkt. stay stale & stagnant, & let 93.3The Planet be Charlotte's outlet for Active Rock.
 
Clear Channel owns both 99.7 and 106.5 so threy're not going to pit them against each other. 100.3 is not competition for 106.5 since they are technically both in different markets (though 106.5 can be heard clearly in the Triad). As much as i'd love to have an active rocker back in Charlotte again, Clear Channel is not going to be the one to do it. they do have classic, active and modern rock stations in some markets (try dallas), but all their other stations are doing too well to switch one. I'd be tickled if CBS took 104.7 that route, but that is highly unlikely as well. Ideally, Dave Lingefeft would bring 95.7 back to that fromat. WXRC was a SUPERB active rock station ten years ago. Unfortunalely, he's way too comfortable with his dinosaur rock.

As for radio wars and 'serving the community', the days of yesteryear are all over. Business is business and the LCD in audience is the order of the day these days. Luckily new competition through iPhones and satellite radio is available for those of us who want to hear something beyond the terrestrial norm.
 
amfmradio1 said:
WEND might program a classic cut such as G&R or VH once in awhile (during lunch, etc.,) but, those are not Active Rock songs.
Click to expand...
It has been years since I did this, but I remember hearing them playing classics during lunch and they were songs like "In a Big Country" by Big Country and "Cars" by Gary Numan. I NEVER thought that would be considered classic.
 
amfmradio1 said:
Jimmy,

Arbitron & Radio & Records list the station as Alternative.

Where do you base your proof?

They play Alternative rock, do or don't you agree?

Check out their playlist on 1065.com

If, in your opinion, it hasn't been Alternative in years, how long has this been going on, & what format is it?
Click to expand...
Arbitron also lists WEZV as soft adult contemporary. The station won't correct it. So you can't really rely on Arbitron.
 
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